Interview with CHAPEL OF DISEASE

by Vpower

The Band: Chapel of Disease

Country: Germany

Answers by:Christian Krieger (bass)

German Metallers CHAPEL OF DISEASE present their highly anticipated new album “…And As We Have Seen The Storm, We Have Embraced The Eye”. Starting in 2008 as a band dwelling in the raw death metal sounds from the late 80s, right now the pìcture is bigger than in the beginnings, the outcome is a record somewhere between the atmosphere of black and death metal, including riffing from the golden days of the 70s and soundscapes of the synthie 80s. A top enjoyable album, suitable for so many tastes. More about it with bassist Christian Krieger.

Hello Christian, after 3 years you present your new album “…And As We Have Seen The Storm, We Have Embraced The Eye”! To start, the title is not short, what’s the meaning behind it?

Yes, it seems we have found our love for long titles with our second album, haha. To be honest, I cannot say too much about the title, except it was a creation of our singer/guitarist Laurent. Compared to the lyrics on our former albums, the lyrics on “…And As…” are not any more related to classical horror literature but more to personal thoughts and feelings. Many things have changed in our lives during the years since our last album and the title can be seen as a summary of this restless times.

This is your third album and it seems you have established already a pattern of an album every three years?

Yes, sure. But as we don’t have to earn a living by the band, we’re in the comfortable situation to take all the time we need to create new music. And we don’t have to work after a rigid time schedule to release one album every two years or so.

The cover art displays a very artistic point that marries very well with the title

That’s right and we can say that we’re very pleased with it. Timo Ketola has once again done a fantastic job and we are very happy and also a little proud that we could get him, who has designed so many important albums in the past, to do the artwork for us. We sent him the title of the album, some of the lyrics and some rough ideas of what we had in mind for the artwork and what he created out of it is just stunning. All elements just grip perfectly into each other and we couldn’t be happier about the result.

Your previous album “The Mysterious Ways Of Repetitive Art” mixed up sounds, I think with the new album you still go further

Yes, that’s correct. When we started the band there was this kind of mood in the scene, like everything went back into a more old school and serious way and that totally amazed us, as this was exactly what we ourselves were into. We always liked different styles of music, from Classic Rock to Black Metal and many other stuff. We loved to do an Old School Death Metal album at this time, but after it was done we were clear about the next album to go a step further. Not by force but by a natural development that happens automatically when you’re an open minded music lover. And with better instrumental skills came the courage to try out where it could lead us if we let flow some wider spread influences into the music. And we’re very happy with the results so far.

Some bands repite the same album time after time, others like COD never stop experimenting new paths…

That’s what I mentioned before, to get stuck into one defined direction was never an option for us. We all love bands who go a similar way, Tribulation, for example, was a huge influence for us with what they started on their second album. We totally respect bands that try to go their own way and dare to try something new. As long as it’s authentic. Authenticity is everything!

With the new album some old death metal fans might be dissapointed but surely you will gain other people to the cause. I suppose you do not make the maths when you compose a new album

At the risk of using a made-up word but first in line we make music we would love to listen to ourselves. But after all we’re also fans who like to talk music and all its concerns with other people and I had to lie if I would say that we don’t care how people react to our music. It’s always great to get feedback from maniacs who have a similar view on music as we do and whose opinions we totally respect. And from others as well, haha. But we don’t create music in response to people’s reactions. We’re fine if others enjoy our music as much as we do, it’s great to play live and see a lot of people freak out, but we would also create this kind of music if we would only sell 50 demo tapes and play in front of ten noses in our backyard.

For me, that variety is the most outstanding feature in the album, it makes me think that COD can offer something different

Yes, probably, but we don’t want to be different just for the price of being different. As I mentioned before, it’s a natural evolution and nothing we try to force.

What has been the most difficult task composing the album?

That was probably the time management. Everyone of us works full time, some in shifts, so it wasn’t always that easy to coordinate rehearsals or recordings.

Six songs, long songs, any favorite?

My recent fave is “Void Of Words”, because -to take away a part of the answer to your next question in advance, haha- it sums up everything what C.O.D. is, up to date. We still got the Death Metal vibes in it, but as well we have those, as I call it, Pink Floyd- and Dire Strait-ish parts in it, that are really fun to play.

Yes, indeed. For instance, Void of Words can be a good summary of all the things you can offer in a song. Do you follow any pattern in terms of composition? How hard is for COD to finish up a song?

It always depends, like in any other band, I guess. It can happen that a song is finished after just one jamming session, but we also had songs whose single parts were great but wouldn’t fit together however we compiled them. This can take weeks or even months then, until we’re really pleased with a song.

The four horseman continue to strike once again, same lineup as in Summoning Black Gods, that makes you more compact in terms of sound?

Yes, definitely! As we’re not only band mates but also friends over many years -two of us are even brothers- we grow together in many aspects, not only musically. And this has certainly an impact on how we work as a band.

The future of Metal goes in the direction of bands like Slaegt, Mgla, Chapel of Disease, etc?

I hope so, haha! I’m into Metal for almost 30 years now and I have witnessed many ups and downs regarding the musical quality in the scene. But I can say that the last, hm, maybe ten years were the best I have ever experienced during all this time. Mainly due to those bands you mentioned and so many, many more in that vain, that try to walk new and untrodden paths. It’s exciting times we’re living in and I’m happy to experience all this and really look forward what the future will still bring.

Do you plan to tour around? Any chance to see you in Spain?

Recently I cannot say too much because there’s nothing safe yet except a handful of shows, but yes, we definitely will finally play live again in 2019. And maybe we’ll come to Spain sooner than you think, hehe.

Hopefully so. Thank you very much Christian and congratulations for your brilliant album. If you wish to add something…

Thank you, too, I really enjoyed answering your questions! Good luck furthermore with Metalbrothers and thank you for the great album review (although I didn’t understand that much as my Spanish is pretty poor, hehe)! See you soon!